Seasoning timber.



J. J. OWEN.

SEASONING TIMBER.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 11, I916-- 1 1 85,529 Patented May 30, 1916.

T W g a va jzargzi c/JflJJtZiZ/ JOHN JOHNSON OWEN, OF LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND.

SEASONING TIMBER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 30, 1916.

Application filed January 11, 1916. Serial No. 71,598.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN J oriNsoN OWEN, a subject of the King of England, and resident of Liverpool, in the county of Lancaster, England, have invented new and useful Improvements in and Connected with Seasoning Timber, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has reference to artificially seasoning timber, and more particularly to that type of process of' seasoning wherein after artificially drying or heating, a substance or substances is, or are, introduced or imported into the timber.

Very many attempts have been madeto artificially season timber, the object generally being to accomplish the drying or seasoning in a relatively short time, as compared with the natural drying or seasoning; and in some of the processes hitherto proposed, it has also been suggested to import into the timber, after or during the drying process, a substance which will fill the pores or interstices of the timber more or less,

which have been partly created by the drywood or medium hard wood, and of substantial or large size or section.

'The chief object of the present invention is to provide a process of artificial seasoning timber of the latter kind and character, which, while it enables the timber to be rapidly dried and seasoned, itthe timber after treatment wilLnot contain large cracks or interstices, as it does if treated by the present process of the ordinary drying type, nor be highly porous, but on the other hand, will be fed and filled with extraneous substances imported into it, which will extend throughout the timber, even if of large sectional dimensions, so that the whole body will be treated uniformly throughout, or at least'to the degree which will avoid the defects, and will be satisfactory, and will meet the required character and: quality of such timbers, and be available practically for all purposes to which hardwood timbers, seasoned by the lengthy natural process, are

now available and put.

In the process according to this invention,

and afterward the wood or timber is put in the presence of, and subject to the action of' fumes or distillates of wood or vegetable .matter (say more or less waste or refuse wood or vegetable matter); and in some cases, 1n conjunction with gaseous products of coal, coke or like hydrocarbon substances. This action may be conducted in the same vessel or chamber in which the timber recelves its preliminary steaming and drying operations. The distillates or gaseous products of substances, such as referred to, may be the productions of the partial combustion of the substances; and are simply and advantageously produced'in a gas producer or like type of apparatus, so as to cause a distillation of the volatile or evaporatable constituents, or most of them, of the materials referred to. These gaseous and vaporous substances are conducted'from the generator or producer, and delivered into the seasoning chamberwhich may be of any known suitable ,kind; and they are caused to en velop the timber, and pass or circulate over it; and those not absorbed are eventually discharged through a chimney or conduit; the rate of flow and passage being regulated by suitable dampers or other equivalent means. The timber will thus be subjected to this atmosphere of gaseous or 'vaporous substances of wood, and other substances such as specified, for a period depending upon the size of the timber, and the requirements of the case; and the gaseous or vaporous substances will be continuously or intermittently suppliedc at the required rate; and at the natural pressure of the atmosphere, or above it or below it.

In some cases the wood chippings, sawdust, or other waste used in the apparatus for distilling it, is of the same kind as the wood being seasoned, so that the interstices or pores of the timber in this case will be filled either as a whole, or in a large degree, with the distillates or fumes or the condensed products of same of the same nature or character as itself; and these distillates,

fumes or like products, will solidify or betimber, the timber is placed ir a closed metal vessel, either on trolleys, or otherwise, and

then closed up; and the steam (say exhaust steam) is passed through the apparatus, and the timber subjected to its action. After this treatment, the timber may be subject to a drying action, produced by steam passed \the size of the timber being treated; the heating and drying, from one to three hours;

' and the impregnating and absorbing action takes about ten to fourteen hours, more or less.

An apparatus of the character just specified is shown in the annexed drawing, Figure 1 of which is an elevation and Fig. 2 a plan.

In this drawing a is the furnace, retort, or stove, in which the distillation of wood, vegetable matter, or other products used in the process is carried on. This apparatus a may be assumed to be of any known suitable kind, such as a gas producer type of apparatus, wherein the solid or liquid materials to be converted into gas to be used in the process are produced; the material to be gasified or vaporized being introduced through suitable hoppers 5, having suitable valves or trap devices on them; While the gases 0r vapors of distillation or combustion or partial combustion, are carried from it to the treating vessels, by a pipe 0.

The treating vessels or chambers are marked 03, andeach consists of a cylinder, :with hinged or other suitable removable doors 6 on their ends.

The treating gases are led by the pipe 0 to the upper and central part of the chambers, and the surplus gases which are discharged from them, are conducted away from the lower part of same at each end, by pipes f,

which, in the case shown, leadout of the side and bottom of the cylinder and through the funnels h. Thus the gases and vapors conducted by the pipe 0 to the chambers b have to traverse the wholeof the interior of them, and the whole of the interior of them will thus be uniformly charged with the gases 01' products of distillation or combustion, uniformly throughout.

Steam is conducted to the chambers or vessels (Z by a pipe 9 which may be passed through the producer or retort a, and superheated in it if desired. Steam is introduced into the seasoning chambers or cylinder 03 when the Wood is being subjected to its first treatment, namely, that of steaming and drying; the exhaust or surplus steam being discharged through the funnels h at the ends of the chambers and the pipes F; and steam is also introduced into coils or pipesindicated by the dotted line marked z in Fig. 1- in the chambers, for heating and drying the wood.

v The funnels or pipes f and it may have valves on them in the case where it is required to put the interior of the chambers or cylinders d under a vacuum, which can be simply done by introducing steam, driving out the air, and then after the vessel is closed,

allowing the steam to condense; or, it can be done in any other way. Hot air may also be introduced into the seasoning chambers with the gaseous products, in some cases; and the particular kind of gaseous products employed will depend upon the class of Wood that is being seasoned.

WVhen the operation has been completed, the timber will be found to be seasoned, and possesses the advantage, among others, of being able to withstand the action of the weather, equally with weather-seasoned timher, this being due to the nature and character of the gaseous products or vapors referred to, which are absorbed by the timber, and to the treatment in general; While, at the same time, the timber is not checked or split,

and moreover it retains all its life.

What is claimed is In an apparatus for seasoning timber, the combination of a gas producer, a treating chamber, a pipe leading from the gas producer to the treating chamber, a heating member into which steam is introduced to supply dry heat to the treating chamber, a pipe supplying steam to the heating member,

means for supplying steam to the interior of the treating chamber, and a pipe communicating with the treating chamber for the exhaust of the steam and the gas. 

